Matvey Levenstein
Matvey Levenstein’s delicately wrought, easel-sized paintings have been described, somewhat bombastically, as “neo- or para- or faux-Romantic,” but also as an “anti-expressionistic respite from our insane cultural moment.” What they are is more fundamental still. Thoughtfully deliberative studies of the world nearest to hand, they shimmer and glow with the force of faded snapshots, of images receding unavoidably into memory. If life is perennially weighed down with the gravity of death, then Levenstein’s quietly painterly dramas capture that shift in a frozen moment—one that is neither fragile or innocent, as many photographs are, but attentive, restrained, disciplined.
— CVF, USFCAM
Video courtesy Kasmin.
“I hate to admit it, but the lockdown suits my personality… I enjoy being a hermit. I always tell my students that the only way they can become painters is if they enjoy being by themselves for extended periods of time. If they don’t, they’re not in the right profession.”
— Matvey Levenstein
Artist Matvey Levenstein in the studio. Photo by Diego Flores.
About Matvey Levenstein
(Moscow, U.S.S.R., 1960)
He lives and works in New York City.
Matvey Levenstein’s delicate and exquisitely rendered paintings explore themes of history and representation. His paintings and works on paper are filtered through the most traditional painterly genres—the landscape, the still life and the portrait—and are imbued with a distinctly literary sensitivity; they are quiet meditations on the relevance of Romanticism in the 21st Century. He chooses his subjects intuitively, drawing from his immediate surroundings, preoccupations and friends. Beginning with snapshots, he captures a scene’s formal properties before beginning his material investigation. His work ranges in size and materials, including large sumi ink drawings, and smaller, delicate works realized on linen, copper and wood. Levenstein teaches at the School of Visual Art, New York, NY. He is included in the recent publication Landscape Painting Now (D.A.P., 2019). Levenstein has been the recipient of several awards, honors and residencies that include the Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome; the Penny McCall Foundation Award, New York; the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Studio Grant; and the Katherine J. Horwitch Grant, Jewish Foundation.
Artist website: matveylevenstein.com
Artist Instagram: @matveylevenstein
Gallery website: kasmingallery.com